An Ode to Sewing by Hand

Text and textile are the main threads that have run throughout Josiane Richer dit Laflèche’s life and they, along with neurodivergency and disability (ME/CFS), have had the biggest influence on the shape it has taken. A linguistic anthropologist by training, she works with words––both hers and those of others––in various ways, including in her capacity as the agent of writer and storyteller Éric Gauthier. The rest of her time is divided between reading, spinning, sewing, weaving, knitting… and learning other fibre and textile arts! Josiane is currently channeling her interest in language and culture into crafting a podcast that aims to provide listening practice to people who are learning French or who want to maintain their knowledge of that language. Learn more at yourfrenchspeakingfriend.com. She lives in the N’dakinna, the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Waban-Aki (Abenaki) Nation, more specifically in Kchi Nikitawtegwak—the name given by the W8banakiak to the city otherwise known as Sherbrooke, Québec.